


Tainted Love

by GreatDane



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Age Difference, Alternate Universe, Angst, F/M, Fluff, Punk, Punk Harry, Punk Liam, Punk Louis, Punk Niall, Punk Zayn, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-07
Updated: 2015-09-13
Packaged: 2018-04-19 13:24:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage
Chapters: 10
Words: 15,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4748039
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GreatDane/pseuds/GreatDane
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jamie is a 15-year old girl whose parents are very strict and judgemental. At least her mother is. They pressure her to be as good as she can be, and would never in a million years expect her to bring home a boy who was not from a filthy rich family or had a single B on their report card.<br/>So when Jamie falls in love with a boy who does not exactly live up to these requirements, and who is also a bit older than her, drama ensues. Will she be able to show her parents that Harry is actually a great guy, or will they be forced apart and end up broken hearted?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

Prologue 

"Harry!” I squealed as his hands once again started tickling my sides. The amount of laughter that passed my lips, along with my jerking limbs, had my bed shaking, and I was almost falling off of it. My boyfriend was straddling me, smiling like the gorgeous idiot he is. He bit his lip, effectively trapping the shiny ring pierced through his lower lip, between his teeth. "Shh, we have to be quiet! If my parents finds you in my room, you’re dead,” I said between gasps, my seriousness a bit hard to detect through the laughter still spilling out of my mouth, but we both knew it was absolutely true.

"Say that you love me,” he said, widening his eyes to use his puppy eyes-trick on me. He didn’t really need to use it; I would spend the rest of my days, the last of my hours, the last of my seconds, telling him that I love him. I would utter every single cheesy love-proclaiming word for him that my heart could come up with – and I would tell him: "If you’re a bird… I’m a bird.” And I would make fun of him for loving The Notebook, although I love that movie myself, and he would pretend to be mad and end up tickling me when I poked his adorable dimples; and we would end up in this position once again.

"I love you.”

The smile that broke onto his face was one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen. I’d told him that I loved him more times than I could count, but no matter how many times I said it, it would never lose its meaning.  
"Not as much as I love you,” he stated matter-of-factly and leaned down to kiss me. "You’re so cheesy!” I laughed and playfully pushed his chest. He simply rolled his eyes and leaned even closer, finally closing the gap between our lips.

"Jamie, I think your dad-“

Harry and I both snapped our head towards my door, which was now wide open and revealed my furious-looking mother. Oh no.  
"You,” she hissed. "Mom, no, listen-“ "What are you doing here?! Did you not understand what I told you the last time? Are you really that thick-headed?!”  
"Mom, listen-“  
"No! Jamie! I am so disappointed in you. I thought I had raised a better daughter than this. You really don’t leave me a choice in this.” Before I knew it, my mother had dialled 911 and pressed her phone against her ear. Was she actually about to do this? Have her daughter’s boyfriend arrested, simply because she didn’t approve?  
Harry simply sat there in my bed, staring holes into my mother’s eyes. She turned away from his eyes, acting as if he wasn’t even worthy of her time. The rage that was building up inside of me was taking control of my body, and I suddenly felt all the hate in the world towards my mother.  
"How dare you?! This is MY life, and I can love whom I want to love! For once, this is not your decision!” I practically screamed at her, though she seemed to be paying no attention to me, solely focusing on the person who was now speaking on the other side of the phone.  
My mother started rambling off about a boy losing his temper and she needed assistance, and that was when I snapped. How dared she.  
I ran towards her, taking her completely off guard, grabbed her phone and smashed it into the wooden floor beneath our feat, the glossy screen cracking into a million pieces. The look on my mother’s face could make anyone want to crawl into a hole and hide there forever, but not me. Not anymore. I was done dealing with her.  
"What is the matter with you?! How can you not tell how wrong this is! He is 19 for God’s sake! For once in your life you should listen to me!“  
"I have spent my entire life listening to you! Maybe, for once, you should consider the fact that you are not always right!”  
"Oh, I am right. Look at your coward of a boyfriend. He is even fleeing out of your window like a true madman,” she spat with a look of disgust in her eyes as they turned towards my window.   
I immediately turned towards my window as well and saw that what she was saying was true. My chest constricted painfully and my eyes started stinging. Harry was hallway through the window, one leg on the ledge and a look of regret in his eyes. "Harry…” I whispered, fighting the urge to reach out to him, afraid of getting rejected. This was completely new. I had always felt so sure of Harry’s love for me, he was so good at making me feel the love he felt for me… The love I thought he felt for me…

"Jamie… This is for the best… I think. Maybe your mother is right, you know? This isn’t right. It isn’t fair that you have to be so cautioned around your own parents because of me. It’s all because of me. I am so, so sorry. I love you. I truly do.”  
And with that, he was gone.

"Harry!”


	2. chapter 1

Chapter 1

5 months earlier..

"What part of ”I don’t want to go” don’t you understand?” my friend, Katie, asked for what must have been the 100th time that afternoon. Rolling my eyes, I simply grabbed her elbow and dragged her further down the school’s hallway with me. "Oh, I understand every part of it perfectly. I just don’t respect it,” I answered with a smirk. At the moment I was trying to get her to join me at a drama-class meeting. I admit, she never was much of a theatrical person, but I really wanted to go, and I was too much of a wuss to go alone. I mean, there were people there. And I am not a people’s person in the slightest.  
"You need to learn how to socialize with people. Geez. How do you expect to ever get a boyfriend with that attitude?”  
Okay, so she might have had a point there. In my 15-year long life, I had never had a boyfriend, or even a flirt. Maybe it was because I was too shy or simply because I am not that attractive. Some of my friends have told me not to be too hard on myself, but in a way I don’t really care about looks. It’s what’s on the inside that counts, right? Yes. I am a very deep person.

"Look. It’s just 15 minutes. I’ve told you this before. In and out. And I’ll buy you a coke when it’s done.” I knew I would convince her with the soda bribing; she loves sugar. I could see she was struggling with herself for a few seconds before she finally said: "Fine. You owe me.” Jumping up and down, I tried to squeal like little girls do when they finally get what they want, but I failed. All I got was a few weird looks from bypassing students.

"You’re weird,” Katie muttered as she pulled me inside of the room where the meeting would be held. I had spent so much time talking Katie into this that I hadn’t even noticed we were there.

As we entered the room, it looked pretty much like every other room in our plain school. The room itself was rectangular with white walls, and the floor was made of the material that you can slide across in your socks; I had no idea what it was called. In the middle of the room stood a dark brown mahogany table surrounded by about 15 chairs, most of which were occupied by other students who were interested in the drama meeting.  
At the far end of the table stood the girl who I believe was the one to arrange the meeting. She looked to be one of the eldest students in the room, and the white shirt and black pencil skirt she wore made her look older and more professional.

Katie and I quickly shuffled to two of the seats at the opposite end of the table and looked around us. The room in itself was filled to the brim with paintings, plants, sculptures and candles, as if trying to make up for the boring white walls and the grey floor.  
The two of us couldn’t help but glance around at our surroundings and check out the other students, who attended the meeting. They seemed to be either around our age or maybe a couple of years older.  
Katie and I were broken out of our reveries when the girl on the other end of the table started speaking.   
"Well. I guess this is the final amount of attendances that are going to be at this meeting,” she said with a wave of her hand towards the door, which two other people who looked to be her age, closed.  
"Welcome. I guess I should start by introducing myself. My name is Charlotte, last name is not important. I am currently the head of the drama-club, and seeing as I am a senior and will be graduating this year, I am looking for a person to follow in my footsteps. I am sure you all have a passion for drama, which I assume is the reason you came to this meeting. Let me tell you the responsibilities the head of the drama-club possesses…”  
I hissed in pain when Katie’s foot connected sharply with mine under the table in an obvious attempt at getting my attention. "Your skills of attention surely gets worse and worse, babe. She’s only been talking for twenty seconds and you’re already trying to gossip with me,” I whispered in her ear, trying to be as quiet as possible, even though I saw the girl at the front, Charlotte, narrow her eyes a bit at me. Katie rolled her eyes at me and scoffed. "Dude. This meeting sucks balls. I hate you for persuading me to get in here. When is the meeting over?”  
I quietly laughed to myself, as this was the typical behaviour of my best friend. At times she would be caring and considerate and funny, but most of the time she was just plain selfish and didn’t care about other people’s opinion about her. Which is one of the odd reasons why I love her.

Not bothering to answer her, seeing as I didn’t have an answer to her question, I focused back on the rambling that was going on at the other end of the table.  
"… which is a very big responsibility, because, when you think about it, the funds that the school raises at musicals and theatrical performances…” My concentration was once again broken by Katie, whose head was leaning on the palm of her right hand and the other was twirling pieces of blonde hair around her fingers. Popping her gum, she said: "I say we ditch this place. Go straight to the vending machine, grab the coke you so generously offered, and go home.”  
"But I’m interested!” I whined quietly, my eyes darting back and forth between Katie and Charlotte, not wanting to end up being yelled at or being told to leave. Katie had gotten me into a fair amount of those situations during the length of our friendship, and my parents were not exactly too fond of her.  
She simply rolled her eyes at me once again, blew a stray piece of hair out of her eyes and looked at the clock that was placed above the door.  
"Okay. That was that. Doesn’t seem too complicated, does it?” Charlotte asked with a smile, as I tried to smile back without frowning about the fact that I had no idea of what she had just said because of Katie.  
I looked to my left and saw pieces of paper being handed to every one of us, and I had absolutely no idea what we were to do with them. When the pile of paper was given to Katie, she took one to herself and one for me and handed it back to the girl that sat on the other side of her, as Katie and I were the last ones on our side.

"Perfect. Now, you will find pens located in the middle of the table-“ Charlotte was interrupted by a knock at the door, which gained everyone’s attention. Caroline gave us an annoyed look and headed for the door. "Look, this roomed is book-“ again she was cut off, but she stopped herself, seemingly surprised by the sight in front of her. I couldn’t see who was there, because of how little she opened the door, and because her body covered the opened crack, but she was obviously not expecting him or her. "What are you doing here?” she asked, and her voice sounded angry and even a bit fearful. "What? I thought you enjoyed my company,” a male voice responded, and I couldn’t help but instantly be attracted to it. It was deep, sort of raw and had a clear British accent.  
Without answering, Charlotte simply pushed the door closed, or tried to, as the person on the other side put his foot in between the door and the doorframe. "Now, now, no need to be angry. I actually don’t enjoy your company that much either, so no hard feelings. I simply wanted to know if Carlos was in here.”  
Charlotte quickly responded with a ‘no’, shut the door completely and leaned against it with her eyes wide open. She quickly recovered though, by clearing her throat and patting down the creases in her crisp, white shirt, which was tucked neatly into a tight black pencil skirt.  
"Who was that?” a boy at the table asked, making several of us nod our heads in agreement and similar interest. Charlotte simply shook her head with a smile on her face and responded with a ‘no-one’. As she walked back to her previous position at the other end of the table, Katie gave me one final look and I caved in. "Fine. Let’s get out of here.”


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"I wonder who the boy at the meeting was. He sounded sexy,” Katie said with a smile on her face as she slammed her locker shut after throwing all of her books in there. I was leaning on my shoulder on the locker next to hers and discretely looked around us, trying to see if anyone heard the ‘sexy’-comment. A lot of the people in our school were uptight about the whole thing with younger students and sexual relations. But like I said, Katie simply doesn’t give a fuck. Once our biology-teacher heard Katie and I talk about Channing Tatum, while using rather appreciative words about his body, and, well, we got detention. The attitude of the teachers seemed to rub off on the elder students, as they had developed a somewhat similar attitude towards us younger students.  
"Yeah, he did. Maybe an ex-boyfriend of hers or something,” I said absentmindedly. Katie nodded with a thoughtful expression on her face, and I couldn’t help but smile at her adorableness. The smile quickly dropped from her face, though, when she was pushed forwards by a boy who bumped into her shoulder.

"Excuse me,” she snapped, causing the tall boy to turn around, and her little outburst seemed to get the attention of a few by passers. What I saw was something I had not expected. A boy with curly, dark hair and deep green eyes stared back at us. His entire attire was black, except for the occasional white band-names written across the fabric of his clothes. The black leather jacket he wore had small spikes on the shoulders and cuffs, and his army boots made him look even tougher. Tattoos crawled around his neck and across his collarbones, which were visible due to the low-cut tank top he wore underneath his leather jacket. He had a few piercings in his face as well; one in his lower lip, a nose piercing, an eyebrow piercing and gauged ears.

To top it off, pitch-black eyeliner outlined his eyes, making them a very intense shade of green.

"What?” he responded, walking backwards slowly while Katie and I kept our ground. His voice sounded a bit like the one that had interrupted Charlotte, but I wasn’t going to make any assumptions. The entire demeanour of him was descending and terrifying. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw almost every single student around us trying to walk past us unnoticed, as if they were scared of him. I was, too. I had never seen him around school before, which was kind of strange, seeing as he was one of those people you definitely did not forget having an encounter with.

"You going to apologise?” Katie snapped at him, trying to remain steady and calm on the surface, though I knew her so well that I could tell she was trembling on the inside. His face showed no emotion, but he seemed to enjoy the reaction he was getting out of us. He didn’t answer her; he simply studied our faces and smiled at us. When he finally disappeared around the corner, Katie shot me a look that said ‘what the fuck’, but she visibly relaxed by slumping her shoulders and standing a bit more upright. "Have you ever seen that guy around before?” she asked me, while she was still trying to shake off the rigidness in her body and started walking again.

"Nope. Never. Which is strange… but this is quite a big school,” I answered her, discreetly casting glances everywhere to see if I could maybe catch another glance of him. "Yeah, well, it’s not that big…” she trailed off, as she turned to me and looked as if she was thinking really hard about something, which is something she rarely does. "Did his voice seem familiar to you as well?” she asked suddenly. I nodded quickly and agreed, happy that she had noticed the same thing I had. "I was thinking, wasn’t that the boy who interrupted Charlotte at the meeting?”   
"I was thinking that as well! I’m glad I’m not the only one. Does he look like a potential ex-boyfriend of Charlotte’s?” I asked with a slight giggle. Charlotte seemed to be a very pristine girl with high expectations, and I could never imagine her dating someone like him. She probably preferred guys in suits and gelled back hair.  
Katie laughed a bit as well, most likely picturing Charlotte and the boy walking down the hallway of the school together, earning discreet glances from everyone.  
Shaking her head, she replied: "Definitely not. Maybe he just ran into her as well, and she didn’t take it as lightly as I did. I definitely let him off the hook, I mean, if I wanted to, I could have taken him down, you know what I’m saying? I mean…” I let her ramble off about how much of a badass she was while picking at my nails and slowly walking with her to our next class. Science was definitely one of my least favourite classes.  
If she was going to keep talking about our encounter with this boy, it was going to be a long one…

When class was over an hour and twenty minutes later, Katie and I were heading to the cafeteria. Luckily, she hadn’t rambled about him the entirety of the class, merely the first thirty minutes.  
After that, she seemed to pay attention to the details of soundwaves our science-teacher was talking about in front of the class. Though with Katie, you never know. She was probably thinking about everything but science.

When we entered the cafeteria, we were met by the sight of an ordinary day in an American high school. It was spacious, but bland, and at the same time filled to the brink with students who had gotten there before we had. "Do you think the punk-rock-whatever-he-is-boy is here?” Katie whispered in my ear as she glanced around. I wondered about that as well, though I had absolutely no idea why, but I think I actually wanted him to be there…  
"I don’t know. But he is a student here, I think, so he must eat in this cafeteria, unless he plans on starving,” I replied nonchalantly while shrugging my shoulders.  
"Hey! There he is,” Katie whisper-yelled as she pointed towards the far left corner of the cafeteria. And sure enough; sitting at a table surrounded by some rather tough-looking boys, sat the pierced and tattooed boy. His back was turned towards us, but it was easy to recognise him with his leather-jacket and curly hair. The people surrounding him were a bit of a guide wire as well. Around him sat three boys, with whom he had an animated discussion. The boy across from him had dark brown hair, which was swept to the side. A stripe of red hair-dye ran through it creating quite a contrast. His eyes were rimmed with eyeliner as well, and his arms were dipped in tattoos, the most eye-catching one being a picture of a big-ass moose on his bicep. The guy next to him had completely black hair and dark skin. His ears were exposed because of the quiff his hair was sat in, and it revealed a large amount of piercings in both and, of course, gauges. He wore eyeliner as well (why am I not surprised), and he had a tattoo crawling on his neck, though he was too far away for me to see what it was supposed to portray.

The last boy sat next to curly, and therefore had his back towards us. I could tell he had blonde hair with a lot of black streaks in it and wore a lot of black and leather, just like the rest of them.

Katie whistled slowly and had her eyebrows raised. "Strange. I’ve never noticed them before,” I mused, scratching my elbow. It was strange – these boys were not the kind of people you would forget so easily, either. I definitely wouldn’t. Even though I would never have the courage to get anywhere near them (except for when I accidentally run into one of them), they looked sort of… alluring. In their own way. Just like the green-eyed boy.  
Eyeing them wearily, I grabbed Katie’s elbow and dragged her towards the line in front of the lunch ladies. The canteen personnel on our school were extremely nice and had no problem offering us extra servings, even though we were only allowed one.  
After we had both gotten a big scoop of spaghetti on our plates, we grabbed two bottles of water and headed towards the table we usually sat at. As usually, it stood empty on the right side of the cafeteria, close to the toilets.  
"Damn girl. Did you see that black-haired dude over at curly’s table? He was smoking,” Katie said, her blue eyes seeming bigger than they normally were.

I mock-dried her chin with a smirk. "Looks like you’ve got some drool there,” I added with a wink, laughing as she slapped my hand away with a smile of her own. "Shut up. I’m not saying anything other than the fact that he’s fucking sexy. I don’t care that I’m 15. I want him.”  
I didn’t answer her, but dug into my spaghetti and twirled a big lump around my fork. Katie sighed dramatically and pushed me a bit, resulting in my fork missing my mouth completely, and I ended up with a big smear of tomato-sauce on my cheek. "I really hate you sometimes.”


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

When the bell of the last class rang that day, I couldn’t help but speed walk to the bus stop. Katie had skipped the last period, but I declined her offer of joining her, seeing as I didn’t wish to spend any more hot Thursday afternoons stuck in detention. She had scoffed at that, but didn’t press the matter.  
In order to get to the bus stop I had to pass the bike shed, and normally I wouldn’t have had a problem with that. This time, though, the bike shed was occupied by four large black bikes, and next to those bikes stood the four boys Katie and I saw at lunch. As I walked past, the green-eyed boy looked at me and smirked. He must have said something to the other guys, ‘cause just as I was about to be out of eyesight from the bike shed, the three other boys turned to look at me. I wasn’t a bit ashamed to say that their faces were even more attractive than they looked to be from behind. One thing I wasn’t expecting, or actually hoped to avoid, was one of the boys to say something to me. The one to do so was the black-haired one with high cheekbones and large, brown eyes. "I heard your friend hasn’t got the greatest sense of coordination, huh?” he joked, making the other boys laugh.

Suddenly feeling protective over Katie, feeling the need to defend her now that she wasn’t here to defend herself, I snapped back without even thinking: "Actually, I would say that about curly here. He didn’t even have enough balls to apologise. Maybe he should get his head out of his ass and actually look where his feet take him. I understand how it is difficult to get it out of there with those tight jeans, but still.”  
As soon as the last few words were out of my mouth, I instantly regretted them. How could I talk like that to a boy like that?! He was probably 18 or older, and he looked to be one of those people with short temper. To my surprise, he didn’t look fazed by my words, maybe a bit surprised, but not angry or offended. The other boys frowned a bit though. "Got a bit of a mouth on you there, eh? I think it would be smart of you to know who to talk to like that and who to respect,” the blonde one said coldly, quickly glancing at curly and then looked back at me. Something to me that he was the leader of the group or something like that.

"And what exactly has he done to earn my respect? Knocked over my friends?” I asked with an eyebrow raised. I had no idea where all of this came from. Normally I would have ignored his comment in the first place and scurried away in fear, but something inside of me nailed me to the ground and made my mouth spit out insults and stand my ground. It was new and I didn’t like it.   
"Hey! You want us to teach you a lesson?” the brown-haired one with a red stripe through it threatened. This made him perk up, though.  
"And since when did we start beating up young girls, Lou?” curly asked coldly, oddly enough seeming a bit offended on my behalf, even though his ‘young girl’ comment made me feel like a child, which made me frown a split second. Lou, I guess his name was, looked at him with a mixture of confusion and surprise etched into his features. It looked like the beginning of a small fight, but the sensible sense of my brain seemed to have taken a bit of a vacation, leaving the reckless part to make me stand completely still and watch the scene in front of me unfold. I had to admit, I was kind of curious to see what happened next.

"You’ve never had a problem with a fight, Harry, no matter whom it involved. Gotten a bit soft, have ya?” the blonde teased, earning a glare from Harry. Harry. It fitted him well. "And you’ve never seemed so ready to prove the size of your balls. Did she get your knickers in a twist, Ni?” Harry snapped back, and the blonde suddenly had a newfound interest in the ground beneath him. "That’s what I thought.” His head snapped towards me when he was done staring down the other guys who looked anywhere but at him, and I, too, had to look somewhere else than into the intense green depths of his eyes.  
"I see no reason for you to still be here. Piss off.” The coldness in his tone hurt me a bit, but I tried hard not to let it show. I didn’t bother answering him – I simply turned on my heel and continued on my way to the bus stop. My heart was pounding so hard that I thought it was going to leap out of my chest, and I had a strange lump in my throat that I couldn’t seem to get it down, no matter how hard I tried to swallow. What are you doing, I thought, crying over a stupid, attractive boy? He’s not even worth your time anyway. I tried to encourage myself to completely forget the episode, but I kept thinking about it until the bus arrived and all of the way to my stop.

I hopped off the bus and practically ran to my room, throwing my backpack at the door and threw myself on the bed. Pulling my pillow over my head, I screamed into it, trying to get out my frustration. Seeing as I couldn’t exactly scream at the boys, which I was really tempted to do, my poor pillow had to be the substitute.

I laid there breathing heavily a couple of minutes before I finally pulled myself together and went over to my jacket, which I had also thrown on the floor next to my backpack. After I dug my phone out of its pocket, I once again threw myself on my bed, lying on my back, holding my phone in arms reach away from my face.  
I only needed to ponder for a few seconds before I knew who to call. I pressed the green button and pressed the phone to my ear, hearing the familiar song being played in the background while waiting for Katie to pick up.  
After three rings, she picked up with a bored-sounding ‘hello?’.  
"What’s up, dude. Guess whom I had a run-in with this afternoon.” "Perry? Jones? Peter? I don’t know, man, it could have been anyone.” Rolling my eyes at her lack of enthusiasm, I simply said: "The boys from the cafeteria.”  
I could hear her suck in a breath. It was silent for a couple of seconds, before she finally replied: "Are you serious?” "Of course I’m serious, you idiot. Man, you should have seen their faces. They are even more beautiful than I would have thought.”  
She let out a breathy laugh and sounded like she was moving around a bit. "I knew it! Ugh, I’m so gonna tap that.” Her comment made me laugh as well, easing a bit of the pressure on my lungs a bit a bit. For some reason I felt like crying which I didn’t understand. Normally I would never take something a boy like him said so seriously, but for some reason I could not get his cold stare and stone hard expression out of my mind; it was like it was burned onto my retinal. 

"Sure. I’ve never quite understood your taste in guys, but whatevs. I’m sure you know what you’re doing,” I teased, trying to lighten my mood. Katie let out a grunt as if she had thrown herself on her own bed, as well.  
We talked like that for a few minutes, and then Katie had to excuse herself because she had to empty the dishwasher. I giggled at that but didn’t comment on it.  
As we hung up, I simply laid on my bed and stared at the ceiling, letting my mind take control and over-analyse everything like usual. Being a girl truly sucks.

I was interrupted by a knock on my door. "Come in!” I shouted, not bothering to move to open the door myself. My mother walked in, wearing her usual pristine suit and tight bun. "Jamie,” she greeted me with a curt nod and looked around my room, a look of distaste on her face. "How many times have I told you to clean your damn room? Do you have no discipline? I swear, you will get nowhere in life if you don’t have a sense of discipline, and people will lose all respect for you…” I let my mother rant about my apparent inability to get a good life, before I finally cut in: "Look, mom! It’s just my room! I will clean it when I feel like it – I am, after all, the one spending the most time in here! And it has nothing to do with my damn future, seriously.”  
My mother pointed a well-manicured finger at me with a scowl on her face. "What have I told you about using that kind of language under my roof? I will not have it!” I rolled my eyes at her and mumbled a quiet ‘you just used it yourself’, but my mother showed no indication of her hearing it.  
"Anyways. That’s not what I came here to say. Tomorrow evening we are hosting a dinner party with some of your father’s colleagues, and as always, I expect you to be well-dressed and well-mannered. If you don’t have something to wear, buy a new dress; the other ones are starting to get a bit old, aren’t they?” she said, a frown making its way on her face towards the end. 

 

As much as I was not looking forward to a dinner party, I was never one to pass up on an opportunity to get new clothes. So I quickly agreed and watched my mother reluctantly strut out of my room, leaving me to lay on my bed and think about curly hair and green eyes. Damn.


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4 

As I hopped off the bus the morning after, I was feeling kind of bummed out. Katie had texted me during breakfast, saying that she was sick and wouldn’t come to school today. To be honest, Katie was pretty much the only person I hung out with at school, so I was not looking forward to spending a day eating lunch alone and awkwardly shuffling through the hallways without anyone by my side.  
Although quite a lot of people had offered to be my friend throughout the time I had been in high school, I had always stuck with Katie. She was the only one I was sure of was a real friend; not a friend who wanted me for my parents’ money.

I dragged my feet across the parking lot, trying to slow down time and avoid the inevitable. Before I knew it, I was at the bike shed. I couldn’t help but look into it to see if it held a motorbike or two. But to my surprise, and slight disappointment, there were only bikes in there. Why do I care anyways, I asked myself, it’s not like it matters. Why would I want to see the rude, dim-witted brat anyways? He was no good. Definitely no good.  
With that thought in my mind, I hitched my backpack further up my shoulder and headed towards my first class. Which I was going to spend alone. Oh joy.

After the two first classes I headed to lunch, blending in with the wave of students rushing from the classrooms to the cafeteria. I thought I saw a studded leather jacket out of the corner of my eye more than once, but quickly brushed it off. Not worth my time.

"Oh, hey! Do you want to sit with us today?” asked a blonde girl as she saw me walking a bit further behind than the rest of the students. Her bright blue eyes were filled with energy and her smile seemed to stretch from one ear to the other. She looked like one of those people who are always full of energy and, more often than not, a true pain in the butt.  
I had seen her around the school before, we had a few classes together; Erica, I think her name was. "You’re the girl from the German-class, right? I thought you always hung out with that girl...”  
"Katie,” I said somewhat annoyed, as she tried to remember the name of my best friend. "Oh yeah,” she said with a sheepish smile. "Anyways, you seem a bit lonely, so I wondered if you wanted to sit with me and my friends? We are not bad company, I promise,” she said with a wink as five other girls came up to us.

"Hey, you’re that rich girl, aren’t you?” asked a dark-haired girl who appeared by Erica’s side. The other three girls perked up at the sound of ‘rich’ and suddenly wide smiles were on their faces. This was the reason I stayed by Katie’s side. People treated you like this when you were rich. If things had been going the way I had wanted them to, people wouldn’t even had known. It’s not like it makes a difference, is it?  
The only reason people even knew in the first place was because my dad was a very known realtor, his face plastered on posters all over town, and because my mother owned a few of the clothing shops the girls from my school spend most of their time in.  
I was really not in the mood to spend almost an hour with people who seemed like they had overdosed on Red Bull all the while drooling over my family’s wealth, so I was quick to think of an excuse.

"Umm, sorry, I have no classes after lunch so I am just going home now,” I lied and bit my lip, hoping they would swallow the lie. And, hopefully, when Katie was once again by my side, they would leave me alone.  
The girls frowned but nodded their heads. "I see. Lucky you; I would give anything to get out of math… Well. We’ll see you!”  
I watched their retreating backs while breathing out deeply. Now I just have to avoid them the rest of the day.

Five minutes later I stood waiting in line, tapping my foot to the beat of a mindless tune I was humming. Luckily no one else had offered me to sit with them yet. Oh the joys of being a social butterfly.  
When it was finally my turn, and I had grabbed a bowl of salad and a bottle of water, I turned around to find an empty table. What I didn’t expect was to bump directly into a rock-hard chest with salad flying everywhere.

"Holy…” I gasped as I lost my balance. I closed my eyes tightly and expected a rough impact, but before I hit the ground, two arms were hooked around my waist and helped me up.  
"I am so sor-“ I stopped mid-sentence when I saw who I had bumped into. No other than the black haired boy who was one of the boys from the bike shed. He looked at me with narrowed eyes, and I suddenly felt scared. "Look where you’re going, yeah? You’re friends with that other clumsy girl, right? What is it with all these girls falling for us…” Wow. He was a douchebag who thinks he has a sense of humour.

"We are not falling for you, idiot, we are falling because of you. Because you are rude individuals who, for some reason, feel raised above general courtesy. You should be ashamed.” The boy did not look apologetic, but he didn’t seem angry either. He almost looked… impressed?  
"You’ve sure got a mouth on you, talking back to someone so much bigger than yourself. I almost respect that. Almost. Now get out of my way, kid.”  
I was so close to objecting because of the fact that he called me a damn kid, but I bit my tongue. As much as I had pride, I was not one to look for trouble. And this boy was definitely trouble.

As he walked away, I couldn’t help but see where he went; to see if he was with the other boys. Sadly, he went all of the way out of the cafeteria, so he wasn’t sitting at some table with the other boys.  
"Oh well,” I mumbled, only now noticing that some of the other students were still looking at me, as they had obviously seen our little run-in. Literally. "What are you looking at?” I sneered, feeling uncomfortable in the public spotlight. They quickly either look away or started an awkward, forced conversation with one of their friends nearby. Damn right. Nobody looks at me without my permission.

Ten minutes later I found myself sitting outside on one of the steps of the main staircase – the one that led up to the main entrance of the school. A vibration rippled through my pocket, making my leg tickle. Please let it be Katie, I thought. But then again, who else would it be?  
I slipped my phone out of my pocket and saw Katie <3 light up on the screen. A smile broke out on my face and I quickly opened the message.

From: Katie <3

Yo! What’s going on? You having a great time at school without me? Believe me or not, I would rather be at school with you than lay in bed with this… sickness. Ew. Snot everywhere. Did you see the hotties today? ;) xx

I rolled my eyes at the message, but kept the smile on my face. Maybe I should tell her that I ran into her favourite punk in the school…

To: Katie <3

Helloooo! I feel so sorry for you, babe : ( And no, I am not having a great time. Mrs. Riggs seems to be more bitchy today than she normally is. Help me. And yes – I met your favourite punk in the cafeteria. I’m telling you. That boy is ruuude.

We kept texting for a few minutes, when the doors suddenly shot up. I whipped my head around to see who had decided to grace me with their company. That was when I saw them. Dammit.


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

"Ooh. Who’ve we got here?” a voice with an Irish accent drawled. I closed my eyes and breathed heavily through my nose. Their smell invaded my nostrils as well – as much as I hated to admit it, they smelled extremely good. Why am I seeing them more than once a day now when I hadn’t even seen them before yesterday?  
I could hear someone sit down beside me, and before I knew it, all of the boys sat around me, and I could literally feel their gazes burning through me. As I slowly opened my eyes, I realized that the blonde one sat beside me, and the other four sat further up on the step behind me. All of them, except for the boy with blonde hair, had a lit cigarette dangling from between their lips.

"You do know that it is forbidden to smoke on the school’s perimeter, right?” I said, crossing my legs underneath me. The blonde beside me raised his brows. "Oh really? We hadn’t noticed. Or maybe we just don’t give a shit. Take a pick,” the black-haired one said with a smirk followed by a long drag of his cigarette.  
To rile me up a bit he blew the smoke directly into my face, causing me to cough and splutter for a good ten seconds. "That is absolutely disgusting!” I exclaimed, trying to waft away all of the smoke coming in my direction.

"Aww, is the kid scared of a bit of smoke?” asked a boy with a somewhat high pitched voice – Lou, I think his name was. I rolled my eyes, but didn’t answer him. Truthfully, I absolutely hated cigarettes and smokers. My uncle died of lung cancer when he was very young, and ever since my mother has warned me about the cancer-sticks, as she calls them. After a little while with none of us uttering a word, the silence felt so heavy that I felt the need to say something.  
It was also really uncomfortable to be in the middle of what seemed to be a staring competition.  
"I’m just trying to warn you; I couldn’t care less if you cough up your lungs in a few years,” I said with a shrug of my shoulders. Of course I would feel bad if they actually ended up dying because of smoking, but I had a feeling that careless was a good way to act around these people. I just hoped they wouldn’t be offended and start beating me up, or even worse, kill me.

But they seemed to hate me a bit less than they obviously did yesterday.  
The curly haired one, Harry, actually wiped away a fake tear and said with a mocked sniffle: "I feel so loved!”  
"You better be careful with that crying, curly; your makeup might start running.” Oh. My. God. What did I just say. I quickly slapped a hand over my eyes and bit into my bottom lip. Are you trying to get yourself killed, goddammit. To my surprise, and immense relief, my ears were met by the sound of laughter. They actually laughed at my insult.  
Oh well. It’s better than getting the lights beat out of me.  
"You’ve got quite a mouth on ya there, kid,” said the blonde one who seemed to be the least amused. "That’s what I said, like, an hour ago in the cafeteria. The kid just slammed into me,” the black-haired boy, whose name I should really learn by some point, said.  
Harry started smiling and punched my shoulder lightly.

"I told you that you had no coordination,” he said with a smirk. I couldn’t help but notice the way his nose scrunched up a bit when he did that, his nose piercing glinting in the sunlight.

I ignored him and took out my notebook from my backpack, flipped to a new page and started scribbling on it.  
"How old are you anyways?” asked Harry as he leaned over my shoulder to see what I was drawing. I slammed the notebook shut and turned my head to look at him.  
"Why do you want to know?” I asked with a raised brow.  
He just shrugged his shoulders in reply. "I don’t know. Maybe you’re too old for us to call you a kid.”  
I laughed at that. Firstly because that was a terrible excuse, and secondly because I knew they would continue to call me kid no matter what, even if I was 20.  
"Fine. 15.”

The boys didn’t seem to expect that as their eyes widened a bit, but other than that they didn’t respond. "Wow. That’s quite… young,” said another brown-haired boy who sat next to Lou.  
"It is not!” I argued, trying to hold my ground. It was enough to be treated like a child at home; I wasn’t even that young! Besides, I was very mature for my age.  
"How old are you then, huh? 18?” I asked with a slight attitude, squaring my shoulders.  
"19. Or at least I am. Along with Zayn and Liam. Louis is 20,” I raised my brows at that, "and Niall is 18,” Harry said, pointing his finger in the direction of the other boys when he said their names.  
They were really old to be in high school.  
Harry noticed my confusion and added: "We were held back a few years and dropped out and got enrolled again and shi- stuff. Louis doesn’t go to this school, don’t worry. He’s just here because he is taking a year off and can’t live without the presence of the four most amazing guys in the entire universe.” Louis laughed and punched Harry, considerably harder than Harry had punched me.

The other boys laughed at them, and it seemed like this was something that happened quite often. But I just couldn’t help but feel that the blonde one had something against me. As if he truly hated me.

I brushed it off and just praised myself lucky that the boys seemingly accepted my existence. "I’ve got to get going, boys,” said Louis after checking his watch. "Wanna come?” My mouth gaped at that. Surely the other boys had no classes after lunch, ‘cause they weren’t actually considering skipping classes… Were they?  
"Hell yes! Fuck biology anyways,” Zayn said as he jumped up and brushed off his black jeans. The other boys quickly agreed, and before I knew it, they were walking away again.  
They didn’t even say goodbye. But then again I didn’t really expect them to. Could you imagine them shaking my hand and say: "It was lovely to meet you.”?  
I definitely couldn’t.

I decided to jump up as well and head back in, seeing as there was only five minutes left until class started. Just as I looked in the direction the boys were going, I saw Harry turn his head and look at me. When he saw that I noticed him, he winked at me. And it was so hot. Damn.


	7. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

"… and go clean your room!”  
I faced the ground and nodded my head, my backpack still slung over my shoulder as I hadn’t even had time to run upstairs and throw it inside of my room. The second I had come through the door after school, my mother had rushed in front of me and started bombarding me with questions and demands. I had happily forgotten that a couple of my father’s colleagues were coming over for dinner, and for some reason that couldn’t happen without me cleaning my room. Again. And doing the laundry.  
"Yes, ma’am,” I sighed and headed for the staircase. "And don’t forget to separate the different colours of laundry. The last time you did the laundry I had to wear a tinged pink shirt to work. Embarrassing!”  
As I walked away I could hear my mother start to hustle and bustle in the kitchen.

"Hey, sweetie!” my dad mindlessly said as I passed the opening of the living room. I looked over at him and saw him sitting at the coffee table reading a newspaper, a cup of black coffee in front of him and our dog, Nelly, resting at his feet. I just waved, even though I knew he wouldn’t notice, and continued on my way up to my room.

The second I opened my door, I threw my backpack and shoes at the door and headed straight for my bed. The springs in the mattress creaked under my weight and I groaned. I was not in the mood to do anything but sleep. But alas; I had work to do.  
So I jumped up, somewhat reluctantly, and started picking up the stray pieces of clothing that were littering my floor. Jeans, shirts, socks and a couple of bras were thrown in the hamper that stood in my bathroom. "At least now the floor is visible,” I mumbled and leaned over to make my bed.

After my bed was made and my floor was vacuumed, and even some of the dust laying atop of my furniture had been wiped off, I sunk down on my bed with a sigh.  
"Oh bed. You’re my best friend.”  
A knock on my door interrupted the peace in my room, and I lifted my head awkwardly to see my father walk through the door.  
"Hello, kiddo. I just wanted to say that the guests are coming over in an hour, and your mother is stressing out down there, so… Just a quick warning: if you wish to stay un-grounded, stay in your room until 7,” he chuckled. My dad had always been a bit less strict than my mother, but strict none the less.  
I smiled at him and responded: "I see. Thank you for the warning. I wasn’t planning on coming down either way. I guess I’ll see you in an hour then.”  
"Oh, and by the way – I already did the laundry. Just don’t tell your mother that.” I couldn’t help but laugh at that.

My father raised his hand above his head to lift up an imaginary hat while bowing as a goodbye and left. Laughing, I rolled onto my stomach and grabbed my computer from the bedside table. There is not better way to spend an hour than on the Internet.

Before I knew it, it was 7 o’clock and I could hear the doorbell ringing downstairs, followed by the loud barks of Nelly. Wow, they’re on time. To my delight I realised that I now had to wear the new dress I bought with Katie after school yesterday and wear stilettos.  
Almost immediately after thinking that, my ears were met with the sound of my mother’s loud and overly excited welcome, muffled through the floor.  
So I sighed and got up to put on the royal blue dress that reached just above my knees. The upper part, which went to just below my bust, was embedded with silver sequins, and the lower part was made out of a flowing, silky material. I absolutely adored it. Yesterday I had been a bit sceptic about the slightly open back, about whether or not my mother would frown upon it, but I solved the issue by adding a dark grey cardigan.

Just as I had put it on and had pushed my favourite diamond earrings through my ears, I heard loud footsteps coming up the stairs. "Get down here now! It’s rude to leave the guests waiting!”  
To avoid getting an earful once the guests left, I quickly put on my cream-coloured stilettos and went down the stairs as elegantly as one can in a pair of 4-inch heels.

"There she is!” my father greeted me as I walked into the dining room. For the occasion, the mahogany table was set with our finer plates and pure silver cutlery, and the rays of light sent out by the chandelier above shone in every diamond-encrusted jewellery in the room. And there were quite a few of those.  
When I had done the always slightly unpleasant round of welcomes and shaken every hand in the room, except for my parents’, I stepped over to the side and leant against the wall.   
The guests turned out to be three couples; the Jacksons, the Harris’ and the Martins.  
Mrs. Jackson was a slim woman with a diamond-enwrapped neck that definitely belonged to one of those women who enjoy peeking out at their neighbours through the curtains of their kitchen window. Her husband had a friendly face, a pair of glasses resting atop of his nose, and one of those smiles that seemed almost infectious.  
Mrs. Harris was slightly heavier, but possessed the same composure and elegance as a royal person. Her face seemed a bit too snobby for my taste, the way her nose seemed to scrunch up from time to time, and the way her rose petal lips stretched into an obviously forced smile. Mr. Harris was no different. A slight frown looked like it was permanently etched into his features, and it looked like the corners of his mouth were pulled down as if by gravity itself.

Lastly the Martins seemed like a nice couple. They were noticeably a few years younger than the other couples, even younger than my parents. Their warm, crystal-white smiles contrasted nicely with their dark skin.

As my mother had asked us all to take a seat at the table, a soft Mozart-tune started to flow through the speakers in the room, supplying a warm atmosphere in the room.

 

A good hour into dinner I was sat with an empty plate before me, clutching my stomach with both of my hands because of how uncomfortably full I was. My mother had been sending me discreet, disapproving looks during the entire first and second course, but really; how could she expect me to have only one portion of each when they were my favourites?  
I sat absentmindedly and stroked my remaining pieces of cutlery with the tip of my fingers, slowly tuning out on the conversation that was carried so effortless by my parents. They were actually great hosts.

"So, have you heard of the five boys who were caught vandalising the bank’s parking lot earlier today?”  
My ears perked up at the sound of ‘five boys’, but I made sure to not let my sudden interest show. It might as well be a coincidence that it was five boys; I mean, there are lots of boys who hang out in groups, right?

 

"No, I haven’t. I guess the news don’t spread as quickly in this neighbourhood,” my father chuckled, but it was an effortless lie. If anything happened in this neighbourhood, even something as small as a new TV being delivered to one of the houses, everyone would know about it. Everyone.

"I see. Well, from what I heard they were all rascals – tattoos and piercings and leather and motorbikes, the whole lot. Apparently they were “decorating” one of the walls with some of their God awful spray-paint. If it was up to me, they would all have been sent to juvenile prison a long time ago.”  
Oh dear. There was no way it was a coincidence that five punks had been vandalising the parking lot. It was definitely those boys.

I cleared my throat and casually added to the conversation: "Did you catch any of their names, by any chance?”  
Mr. Harris leant back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. "I cannot say I did. But it shouldn’t matter, should it? I mean, unless you were to socialize with such scum.” My mother’s gaze was practically searing my skin, and I knew I was on rocky ground here. If I said anything out of line here, I might as well have killed someone.  
"Oh, no. I definitely do not socialize with such… scum.” The word tasted bitter on my tongue, but I tried to ignore it. "I was simply curious.” I made sure to add a sweet smile at the end of the sentence to seem more convincing, but it seemed like I was off the hook.

"Of course, my dear. It is only natural to be curious. As long as you remember that curiosity killed the cat,” Mr. Martin added with a wink, and I breathed out heavily.  
The conversation started up once again, though this time evolving a different topic, and my mind wandered back to what I had just heard. So that’s what they were doing when they skipped school. Who would’ve known that they were not only poorly mannered, but were also criminals? Before I could ponder more about it, though, my mother cut in:

"So. Anyone up for dessert?”


	8. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Two hours later the guests went home, and I was sent off to bed. Before I could make it to my room, though, my mother grabbed my arm and tugged me into the kitchen, out of my father’s earshot.  
"Yeah?” I asked, leaning against one of the counters while my mother straightened her back and started rubbing her creased forehead, as if trying to massage away a headache.  
"What was that? With the five criminals?” she angrily whispered. Oh. I nervously played with my fingers and shrugged my shoulders in a, hopefully, careless manner. "It was nothing. Just curiosity, you know.” My mother narrowed her eyes at me, like she had done so many other times that night, but didn’t say anything at first. Which was a really bad sign. "If I find out that you have socialized with such… pure scum, I don’t even know what I will do.” I gulped audibly and nodded quickly.

"Of course.”  
"All right then. Goodnight.” My mother once again strutted out of the kitchen, her butt barely able to move in the tight skirt she was wearing. That was close. After breathing out deeply, I continued to my room upstairs and got ready for bed, Nelly watching my every move while lying on my bed.

As I tucked myself in 10 minutes later, I pulled the duvet up to under my chin and started stroking Nelly’s fur. Maybe I should just pretend that I’ve never met them. Yes. That sounded like a plan.  
But whether I would be able to forget those enticing green eyes, which promised nothing but trouble, I didn’t know.

 

I wanna be drunk when I wake up  
On the right side of the wrong bed  
And every excuse I made up  
Tell you the truth I hate  
What didn't kill me  
It never made me stronger at all…

"Ugh.” I lazily stuck my hand out from underneath my toasty warm duvet and reached blindly for my phone. It can’t be morning already. When I finally grabbed it, I quickly tapped the ‘snooze’ button and checked the time. 08.30.  
Who is even up that early on a Saturday? Well, besides my parents. Oh yeah! I almost forgot that I had a day planned with Katie today, seeing as she owed me a full day of company after leaving me alone the entire day yesterday. With that thought in mind, I sprung out of bed, already feeling a lot more awake, and took a shower.  
"Are you up?!” my mother shouted through my door, most likely for the 8th time or so, as I probably hadn’t heard her before because of the running water.  
"Yeah!” I shouted back, wrapping a big, white towel around my body and stepping into my room, onto the comfortable plush carpet.  
"Good.”  
I rolled my eyes, tempted to ask her who else would be using my shower, but I opted against it.   
A flashing light out of the corner of my eye caught my attention, and I trudged over to my bedside table to see my phone vibrating with the name Katie <3 flashing on the screen. Answering the call and tapping the speaker-button, I was greeted by a loud: "HELLO!”  
I chuckled and shouted back just as enthusiastic. "Are you ready for our day together?” she asked excitedly as I walked over to my closet to find some clothes. "Totally! My Katie-resources are running low after not seeing you for an entire day!” She laughed back at me, and I could hear a sound in the background, almost like tires screeching. "Is your mother driving you here already?” I asked as I put on a matching pair of light blue panties and bra.  
"Yeah,” she admitted sheepishly, "I missed you too much. And I am now perfectly healthy, due to a freakishly large amount of cough syrup.” She made a gagging sound and the faint sound of her mother scolding her met my ears. Laughing, I put on a pair of black skinny jeans and a cream sweater, using the towel to dry my hair.  
"Well, no matter what you’ve been through, I still won’t forgive you for leaving me. You owe me pizza and movies, young lady. See you soon,” I ended the call and stuffed my phone in my back pocket. I decided not to wear any makeup, seeing as it was just Katie and she has seen me in a worse state than just natural.

"Jamie, sweetie! Katie is here!” my dad yelled from the bottom of the staircase, and I quickly ran down the stairs, taking two steps at the time, and ran directly into Katie’s awaiting open arms. My dad rolled his eyes, though with a smile on his face, and muttered: "Teenage girls…” I guess we were pretty silly, as we had only been apart for 24 hours, and we were squishing each other as if we had been on each our side of the world for years.  
"I brought some candy and popcorn. Just for you,” she winked at me and pushed me into our living room. "You are not eating any candy this early in the day, young lady. Breakfast first,” my mother scolded, as she saw the various amount of brightly coloured bags clutched in Katie’s hand.

"Yes, mother,” I sighed and walked into our kitchen to get some cereal and a glass of orange juice. Katie hopped onto the barstool beside me and started talking a hundred miles per hour.  
"So, what did I miss? Did anything cool happen? Did anything embarrassing happen? Did someone bring cake? I swear, it’s like every time I miss a single day of school, it’s like freaking dinosaurs come into the cafeteria or some shit.” She thankfully lowered her voice at the end of the sentence, practically whispering the word ‘shit’, and turned the stool so her entire body was facing me. She was wearing sweatpants, a T-shirt with the American flag on it, and her blonde hair was up in a ponytail. Just like me, she opted for no makeup as well; except for the fact that she looked gorgeously flawless without it and I looked… well. Like me.

"Nothing happened really. Or, well…” Katie’s eyes got a little bigger and she nodded her head encouragingly at me, trying to get me to say whatever I was going to say.

I silently debated in my head whether or not I should tell her about talking to the boys on the stairs, or rather get slightly harassed by them, but I figured she was my best friend, and I have never kept anything from her.  
"Actually, at lunch, I went outside to eat because someone failed to keep me company,” I jokingly glared at her, but she simply stuck her tongue out at me and pushed my shoulder, nearly causing me to spill the milk I was pouring over my cereal everywhere. "And some people decided to keep my company for a while.”  
"NO! Tell me it isn’t true! Have I been replaced,” she mockingly cried, wiping fake tears from her face. "No, you idiot. Those people were, um, five people. Five boys, to be exact.” Realization dawned on her face and, at first, she looked at me with eyes as wide as saucers, but then she looked at me with a slightly angry expression.

"How come you always manage to run into them, huh? I’ve seen them, like, once, and that was from a distance! And I got pushed over by one of them as well.”  
"Exactly! They’re pricks! They have no manners what so ever and they smoke on the school’s perimeter!” I said appalled.  
Katie looked at me with an exasperated expression. "A lot of people smoke on the school ground, James, but they’re hot. Granted, that gives them no excuse to be so rude, but still. There’s just something about them. Don’t you think?”

Yes. I thought there was something about them. Or at least there was something about one of them. And yeah, you probably had to squint your eyes to look past clouds of foggy smoke and inked skin, but there was just something there.  
Something alluring. Something bad, but at the same time enthralling.  
"There is. I don’t know what it is, but… Katie, maybe we should just stay away from them. As my parents say, guys like them are bad company.” She merely shrugged her shoulders with an eyebrow raised. While crossing her legs, she said: "But everybody needs a little bad in their life, don’t they?”

 

Three hours later we were sat on the carpet in front of our television in the living room, for some reason finding the wooden floor more appealing than the leather couch, throwing jellybeans at each other. Titanic was playing in the background, but we had both gotten bored halfway through the film.  
"DiCaprio is hot as hell, though,” Katie mused as she took a short break to actually look at the TV. "Well, you find everybody attractive, hon. Good to know those hormones of yours are working.” Katie pushed me and before I knew it, she was lying on top of me, straddling me, while forcing a finger dripping with spit onto my face.  
"You’re so gross!” I screeched, trying desperately to get her off of me. She wouldn’t budge, though. "You’ve got teenage hormones as well, James, and I think they have caused you to become a bit more sassy than you used to be; I don’t like it. Now apologise.” Her finger was getting dangerously close to my cheek, so I gave in and said: "Fine! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I love you and you’re the best friend ever. Now get off of me.”  
With a content smile on her face, she crawled off of me and sat down in her spot. "You’re still gross, though.”


	9. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

 

The rest of the weekend had gone by in a blur of movies and candy and sleeping, and Monday and Tuesday had been as boring as ever, filled with classes and, in my opinion, an unnecessary amount of homework. Our math teacher, Mr. Higgins, seriously needed to get rid of his habit of tapping his pen on his desk. Each tap, which could be heard all the way in the back of the classroom, pushed me a bit closer to hysteria. And the worst part was that I sat next to Katie, who had an uncontrollable sense of rhythm, which made her feel obligated to tap her foot to the beat as well. But even after a threat or two of breaking off both of her feet from my side, we were luckily still friends.  
Which lead us to where we were now.

"I’m starving,” Katie complained as we walked towards the cafeteria, making our way through a crowd of what seemed like a billion students, all headed in the same direction. It had been 4 days since our “cuddling-day”, as Katie called it, and 4 days since I had seen Harry and his friends. Not that I cared, really.

"I know you are. When are you not? It’s a miracle that you’re not fat yet,” I teased, and slightly pushed her shoulder. Even though it was just a tiny push, she tripped backwards a few steps, into a boy who had his back to us. The hushed conversation he had going abruptly stopped, and he snapped his head around, his body slowly following. Oh dear. Why are there so many punks in this school I’ve never noticed before? And why do we tend to bump into them?

This boy was big, as in extremely tall and buff. He was also clad in leather and black clothes and spikes. His chocolate brown hair was styled into a mohawk, which had been dyed purple on the sides. Just like the other boys, his face was pierced and his body marked with ink. His eyes were small and black, at the moment narrowed into tiny slits with a dangerously dark gleam in them. Honestly he scared the shit out of me.

"Oh crap,” Katie whispered, as she slowly backed away from him, quickly grabbing a hold of my arm and dashing through a number of hallways, almost trampling down a student or two, and pulled us into the girls’ bathroom.  
We stood in there for a couple of minutes, leaning against each our side of the sinks and slowly regained our breaths.  
"That dude…” I wheezed, ,,… was scary as fuck.”  
Katie nodded her head and continued to throw it back against the slightly dirty wall of tiles. "I know. He seemed too old to go here as well, right? I mean… He looked like he belonged in jail or something.”  
He really did. But then again, maybe he just dropped out of school and got enrolled again a couple of times, like Harry and his friends. 

"But let’s get back to class, yeah? I’m still starving.”

 

Three hours later school was finished, and Katie and I were headed home together. For once I had opted for my bike instead of the bus, so we could walk with each other, seeing as Katie didn’t have a bus pass because she lived so much closer to the school than I did. My father agreed to pick my up at her place on his way home from work, anyway.

"It is fucking hot out here! My sweat is sweating,” I panted as I took off my cream cardigan and tied it tightly around my waist. "I don’t get how you can wear jeans in this weather and not be melting,” I said to Katie whilst fanning my face with my arm. It had to be at least 85 degrees along in the shadows.  
Katie just smiled at me and said: "I am feeling quite hot. Just not as hot as you do with all of that fat on your body.” With a pout on my face, I crossed my arms and turned away from her.  
It was silent for a few seconds before Katie burst out laughing and grabbed my right arm, trying to pull it out from underneath my left.  
"Come on, baby! I was kidding. You know you’re beautiful.”

"I know. You’re just jealous of my fabulousness.” "Yeah. I am. Now let’s get home to my place to get a drink. My sweat is sweating, too.”

We picked up the pace a little bit, and after another five minutes of languid walking, trying to walk in the shadows cast by the trees and bushes as often as possible, we made it to her house. It was a small white, cute villa with a front porch wrapped around the front of the house, the wood painted the same beige-colour as the windowsills. The scarce green lawn, which desperately called for attention, was littered with small plastic toys, presumably left outside by her two younger brothers, Matt and Chase. They were twins, identical, and impossible to tell apart. At least by me.

"Home, sweet home,” Katie sighed as she slung her backpack off her shoulder and threw it by the door along with her shoes. I set my shoes next to hers and started following her down the hall to her room. "Hey, guys,” I waved at Matt and Chase who were sitting in the living room, watching some kids’ show. They just waved back absentmindedly, intently following the blue bear on the screen. Chuckling, I walked into Katie’s room and found her sitting on her desk chair, spinning around, waiting for me.

"What’s up,” I said as I threw myself onto her purple duvet. "Nothing,” she shrugged, and I rolled onto my stomach and dropped my head into my hands. Katie had finally stopped spinning around and was now leaning against her mahogany desk, ridden with textbooks and papers and pens. The blinds had been drawn over her window, and the only source of light was cast by a hideous green desk lamp, which I had given her once at her birthday for fun.

"So… what do you want to do?” Katie asked, followed by a loud pop as she blew her gum into a pink bubble and let it burst.  
"I don’t know… We should go to the mall. I could do with a new pair of jeans…” I contemplated, leaning over to find my wallet in my backpack. To my satisfaction, I found that I had 127 dollars left, and I could do with a Slurpee as well.  
"To the mall then,” Katie dramatically yelled, while pointing her finger into the distance. "My mom needs to come home first so she can drive us there, though…”

 

"I believe I can flyyyyyy,” Marlene, Katie’s mother, screeched at the top of her lungs. She and Katie were singing along to the radio, which was now playing their ‘jam’, as they called it. To be honest, none of them had a very good singing voice… It was hurting my ears. Physically.

"We’re here!” I said with relief as we finally pulled into the enormous parking lot. Now my poor ears could finally get some peace. "It’s quite late, baby, so you can’t be here too long. It’s already getting dark. Text me when you need to get home.”  
Marlene gave us each a hug and a kiss on the cheek, and then she left.  
"To the food court!” the blonde beside me screeched as she grabbed my arm and pulled me along to the food court.  
"You owe me some French fries from the last time we were here,” she reminded me. We were standing in line, waiting for it to be our turn, and about six people were in front of us. "This is going to take some time… look! It’s almost completely dark outside!” I whined and looked out of the windows. The sky, and everything it covered, was practically pitch black, and the yellow streetlights outside cast an eerie glow over everything that was touched by their light. It was a well-known fact about me that I absolutely despise the dark and everything that’s in it.

"Oh, relax,” Katie sighed and pulled me around to face her. "We’ll just eat some fries, get you a pair of jeans or something, and then I’ll call my mom.”

When we had gotten some French fries and some coke, we sat down at a table and started picking at them. ,"So. Those boys. Have you seen them since they came out to you on that staircase?” Katie asked curiously and stuffed three fries in her mouth at the same time. Slightly laughing, I said: "No. I haven’t seen them around… It’s like they’ve disappeared.”  
Katie nodded her head and looked around. "Maybe they’re vampires, you know. Like Twilight. Doesn’t Edward leave town for a few days or something?”  
I rolled my eyes and took a swig of my coke. "That’s ridiculous. Maybe…” I trailed off as I caught sight of something on the other side of the food court. It was the guy Katie had bumped into earlier today, the one that looked incredibly intimidating. He was earning a few curious glances from the people around him, but as soon as he looked back at them, they scurried away nervously. It was quite fun to look at, to be honest. Until he looked directly into my eyes, a small smile playing on his lips. A chill ran down my back as we continued to hold eye contact for a few seconds. He almost looked… hungry. In a sick way. Hungry for a fight or something.

"Maybe what?” Katie inquired, snapping her fingers in front of my face to get my attention. I looked at her face for a fraction of a second, but when I looked back at where he just was, he was gone. "Nothing. Never mind.”

"Oh well. It’s getting quite stuffy in here. What do you say we just get those jeans some other time, and we go outside to call my mom?”  
I agreed, as I didn’t want to get home way too late, and she carried the now empty tray over to the trashcan.

When we got outside, it had gotten quite a bit chillier than it was when we arrived, and I pulled my jacket a bit tighter around my body. "I can’t find my phone…” Katie mumbled as she searched her pocket, pulling all of their contents out of them in the search.

The darkness seemed to get even darker, if that was possible, and a sudden gust of wind had my teeth chattering. I also had a feeling in my gut… it almost felt like being watched? I looked around quickly, but saw nothing in the shadows. Curses were flying out of Katie’s mouth at the speed of light, and before I knew it she yelled in victory. "Aha! Got it!”  
At that exact moment, I felt someone grab the back of my neck in an iron-grip, and someone jumped on top of Katie, sitting on her back and pushed her into the ground.  
I put my hand up to my neck, trying to get the fingers to loosen up a bit, so they no longer cut off my air supply. They instantly tightened, though, when a familiar voice came from behind us.

"I’d let them go if I were you.”


	10. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

The guys who had attacked us didn't move an inch. My heart was beating so fast that I was almost positive the guy who held my neck in an iron-grip could feel it through my ribcage. "Why are you here?" the guy behind me hissed and started fiddling with his back pocket.   
Harry didn't answer that, and the silence that followed was deafening, only interrupted once or twice by the pitiful whimpers of my best friend, whose head was now being pressed down into the concrete by her attacker's knee.   
Now that I looked closer, I could tell that the guy who sat atop of Katie had loads of tattoos and piercings as well, and he was also clad in leather.   
The eerie light from a flickering lamppost cast dark shadows over his sharp facial features, making his face resemble that of a predator or a killer. 

"Please let us go," I whispered, afraid that if I spoke too loudly, he would snap my neck. He simply laughed in return and, to my horror, brought out a pocketknife, its blade gleaming in the light that shone from the light posts.   
"I'd shut up if I were you, princess," he mocked, using almost the same phrase Harry had used a few minutes ago.   
I closed my eyes, squeezing them tightly together, willing this all to be a dream, a nightmare. While crossing my fingers, I opened my eyes again, hoping to find myself in my bedroom, but I sadly found myself in the same position I was in when I closed them. Cold, shaking and scared to death. 

"He said: Let. Them. Go," the boy I reckoned was called Lou, said. Our attackers still didn't move, didn't even turn around to face them. My air supply was running low, and I could feel myself getting lightheaded.   
"What do you want from us?" Katie whimpered, her voice barely audible. "Oh, we're just here for the fun," the guy on top of her spoke darkly, chuckling wickedly afterwards. 

"That's it," Zayn snapped, and then I could hear a bunch of footsteps running towards us. Before I knew it, someone tackled the guy who had grabbed my neck, and I could breathe freely again. I gulped in as many mouthfuls of oxygen as I could, trying to keep myself from passing out.   
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Harry and his group of friends beating up the two guys, and out of nowhere two more guys ran out of the shadows. They were obviously not on Harry's side as they tackled the blonde boy, Niall or something I think his name was, and Zayn.   
When my knees had finally stopped trembling, I crawled over to my friend who was now sitting up against one of the dirty walls of the alleyway, her knees drawn up to her chest. I lightly poked one of her legs, trying to get her attention, but she immediately jumped back and started begging: "Please don't hurt me, please don't hurt me…"   
"It's okay, it's just me, we're alright… I think," I added as an afterthought, glancing over my shoulders to see who was winning. Luckily it seemed like Harry and his friends were winning, and suddenly three of the other boys started running away, obviously after having their asses kicked. 

"Cowards!" the biggest guy there yelled at them; he must have been the leader of their group. Yelling at them made him lose his concentration, though, and a punch to the chin made him lose his balance and topple over.

Harry sat on top of him, throwing punch after punch, and it was slowly getting to the point where some of his friends had to come and pull him off of him; if they hadn’t stopped him he might’ve killed him.  
"This isn’t over,” the big guy said darkly, and then he was limping away, too, in the same direction the others had.  
I let out a deep breath and sat up next to Katie. She was shaking, just like I was, and I leant in close to her, both seeking comfort myself, but also to try and calm her down.  
"Oh no,” she whispered after a few seconds, and then I looked up from where my head had been hiding underneath her arm. The boys were slowly walking in our direction, and they did not look happy.  
"Do you think they are going to kill us?” Katie whimpered, pressing herself closer to the wall as there was nowhere else to go; the alley was a dead end.  
Even though it would have made no sense for them to come and save us, only to finish the job themselves after our attackers had disappeared seemed crazy, there was still a feeling of dread settled in my stomach. What if they just wanted us for themselves?

Before I knew it, they were standing right in front of us, looking as darkly gorgeous as ever. Harry was standing in front, and the other guys were spread evenly on his flanks.  
He took a deep breath and said: "Are you okay?”  
I did not expect that. And surely Katie didn’t either. I don’t even think he expected to say that himself; he seemed awkward and seemed to be in unfamiliar territory. As if his mouth had been so used to spitting out insults and curses, the caring question that rolled off his tongue must have left a strange taste in his mouth.

"Umm… I think so, yeah. Thank you.” I didn’t know what to say, so I went with common politeness and hoped they would just nod their heads and be gone or something.  
"Good.” The silence was slightly awkward and filled with tension. "Do you guys need a ride home or something?” Lou asked, taking out a car key from his pocket. I was about to ask It isn’t stolen, is it? jokingly, but opted against it, as I didn’t want to actually get my ass kicked. 

I looked to Katie whose eyes were, not surprisingly, locked onto Zayn’s figure. I slightly bumped her side with my elbow, trying to get her attention in a discreet way as to not embarrass her too much. "Umm…” she looked to her phone, which she had been clutching in her hand, and sighed. "Well. The douchebag on top of me cracked my phone, so I can’t call my mom… Might as well.”

 

The car they drove was actually surprisingly nice; leather seats, polished mahogany dashboard and vacuumed floors. I guess I had kind of expected a dirty old car with broken windows and flickering lights and a brake that didn’t live up to its standards.  
At first the drive had been awkward. There was only room for five people in the car, which was the total number of Harry and his friends, so two of them had to walk home; those two ended up being Niall and Liam. Niall still hadn’t taken a liking to us, and when Liam offered that he and Niall walked home, he practically sent daggers through him - but he ended up agreeing anyways, after getting a murderous look from Harry.   
At first my muscles had been tensed, as well. I mean, what if they decided to kidnap us or anything? But I decided to give them a chance, they had saved our lives after all.

"So…” Louis started striking up a conversation, turning around in his front seat. "Where do you guys live?”

"I live on 1042 Elm Street and Jamie lives on 2941 Dashton Street,” Katie said, leaning back in her seat and looking out the windows. Louis whistled. "That’s some fine neighbourhoods.”  
"Sure is,” I mumbled, as always uncomfortable when discussing wealth and status with people. Harry must have sensed the sudden mood-change, as he turned up the radio to drown out any possible conversation Louis might continue.  
Shadow Moses by Bring Me The Horizon started playing and a smile immediately broke out on my face. I loved that song. Katie absolutely hated that kind of music, as she would rather listen to cheesy boy bands and girl groups such as Little Mix.

"Can you tell from the look in our eyes? We’re going nowhere… We live our lives like we’re ready to die. We’re going nowhere,” I quietly sang the lyrics, tapping my finger on my knee to the beat. Louis once again turned around in his seat, this time with his eyebrow raised and one of his hands on the radio, turning down the volume a bit.  
"You listen to this stuff?” he asked disbelievingly, his tongue toying with the silver ring pierced through his bottom lip.  
I shrugged and started braiding a small piece of my hair. "All the time,” Katie cut in, "it gets annoying, really.” I smacked her arm and stuck my tongue out at her. "It does not! I’d rather listen to this kind of music than to freaking Emblem 9 or whatever they’re called!” "3! They’re called Emblem 3, you imbecile!”

Harry and Louis started laughing and once again turned up the volume a bit, trying to drown out our bickering.

 

When they finally arrived at my house, they had set off Katie 10 minutes before.  
I made them park on the curb a few hundred meters down the block, afraid that my parents would stick out their noses from behind the curtains.  
"So… Thank you for the ride."  
"No problem. I – We’ll see you tomorrow, then,” Harry said with a smile, looking at me in the rear-view mirror.

"Sure.”


End file.
